Abstract：Trade Association was a new type of guild organization established by businessmen during the initial period of the Republic of China, which played an important role in Chinese economic development in modern times. However, during that transitional period, many newly emerging things, to some extent, retained some old remnants, so was Trade Association. Though Trade Association belonged to new-typed business guild organizations, it still remained some characteristics of old-typed guilds. The most conspicuous expression was that it continued to take similar measures as guilds to protect its monopolist profits and had much dependence on the local authorities to protect itself and restrict the development of other businesses. The guild tradition kept by Trade Association violated the market-oriented economic development principles such as business freedom and equal competition. At the same time, it was unfavorable for some trades to make progress and innovations in some fields like technique improvement, renewal equipment and market expansion and so on. All these above indirectly reflected the complicated characteristics of the economic development of Chinese capitalism in modern times.
